Advice for Making a Winding, Organic Shape

AshleyA · 18 Jan 2022, 05:36

Hi there! I created this winding shape in Illustrator and now I'm trying to develop it further and render it in Sketchup. It's proving to be much more complex than I realized. Any ideas on how I might go about this? What plug-ins should I use for a design like this? Any videos that would be helpful? Please see the attached screen captures (one of them is a plan view, the other a front view).

Thanks in advance for any help!
Ashley

(EDIT): I've already started and tried to build this shape piece by piece (see attachment), but I keep getting these weird edges and I want the "winding" path to be smooth.

HornOxx · 18 Jan 2022, 06:55

Hi!
besides other solutions, for example Christina Eneroth´s "Upright Extruder" (which works in a similar way to the Follow Me tool, but much more sophisticated) and SketchUp´s native Solid Tools should hopefully work for your task

https://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=ene_uprightExtruder_v1.2.0

AshleyA · 18 Jan 2022, 15:32

@hornoxx said:

Hi!
besides other solutions, for example Christina Eneroth´s "Upright Extruder" (which works in a similar way to the Follow Me tool, but much more sophisticated) and SketchUp´s native Solid Tools should hopefully work for your task

https://sketchucation.com/pluginstore?pln=ene_uprightExtruder_v1.2.0

HornOxx, thanks for the help! I tried your suggested plug-in and it did work, however, now it will not let me raise and lower the edges... I'd like for the shape to have these angles, not a flat top. I've attached screen capture... is there another plug-in for that? How would I raise and lower the edges to create angles on this shape?

Thanks again!

boofredlay · 18 Jan 2022, 16:33

boofredlay · 18 Jan 2022, 16:36

Only one plugin used. Vector Push pull in the JPP set.
All other commands are native to SketchUp.

Dave R · 18 Jan 2022, 16:44

Nice work Eric.

boofredlay · 18 Jan 2022, 16:46

Here is another, pretty much the same but it has the small arc in the middle of the shape before I rotated it.

AshleyA · 18 Jan 2022, 17:09

@boofredlay said:

Here is another, pretty much the same but it has the small arc in the middle of the shape before I rotated it.

Thanks so much for sending this video Boofredlay! I'll give this a try! Very big help to visualize a solution to achieving this shape!

AshleyA · 18 Jan 2022, 17:12

@dave r said:

Nice work Eric.

Thanks for your suggestion earlier about the helix, Dave! I don't see the comment anymore, but I did download that plug-in and have been trying to learn how to use it and get it to work with the shape I need.